Answer the Door From Anywhere

According to a 2015 FBI Crime Statistics report, there were an estimated 1.5 million burglaries committed that year, with more than 70 percent of them being residential. Surprisingly, the majority of these crimes occurred during daylight hours, with access gained through a door or window. One easy way to safeguard against property theft, home invasion, porch pirates, and even unwanted solicitors is to identify who is at your doorstep before opening your door. Enter the video doorbell, a first line of defense for homeowners that not only lets you see and speak with whoever is outside, but will also record footage of visitors that approach your door while you're away or unable to answer.

These smart devices typically use Wi-Fi to stream live video to your phone and offer a variety of features, including cloud video storage, motion detection, interoperability with smart locks, sirens, and other smart home devices, and more. Read on to find out what to look for when choosing a video doorbell for your home.

Wired or Wireless

When choosing a smart doorbell you have to decide if you want a wireless device that runs on batteries or one that gets its power from low-voltage doorbell wiring. Naturally, a wireless doorbell is the easiest type to install, as it draws power from batteries rather than from your home's electric and doesn't require that you turn off power or mess with any wiring whatsoever. The downside to wireless doorbells is that their batteries tend to deplete batteries quickly depending on usage, lasting anywhere from two to six months. If you live in an area where the winters are cold you can expect to recharge or replace your batteries every couple of months, and run the risk of your doorbell shutting down at an inopportune time.

Wired doorbells are not quite as easy to install as their wireless counterparts, but they are far from difficult and you don't have to worry about losing power unless your whole house loses power. Since most homes already have doorbell wiring, installing a video doorbell is as easy as removing your old doorbell, disconnecting the two wires, connecting your new doorbell to the wires, and attaching it to the outside of your house. In most cases you can connect the doorbell to an existing chime box as well.

Wired doorbells draw power from two wires that are connected to a transformer that steps down your household power to between 16 to 24 volts. If your home is not equipped with doorbell wiring you can wire it yourself using a plug-in transformer, or have an electrician do the work for you. Either way, some drilling will be required to run wires from the inside of your home to an exterior location.

Design and Features

Video doorbells come in all shapes and sizes. The least expensive models tend to be bulky devices with limited color choices, while many of the more expensive models are slim and inconspicuous and come in a variety of finishes to complement your home. Chances are, if the doorbell runs on batteries it is going to be bulkier and more obvious than a wired model.

Any smart doorbell worth its salt is equipped with a video camera that sends an alert to your phone along with a live video stream when the doorbell button is pressed. Video is accessed via a mobile app that is also used to install the device, configure wireless settings, and set up alerts. You'll pay more for doorbells that offer features like 1080p video, motion detection, two-way audio that lets you speak with whoever is out there, and on-demand video streaming. To avoid false alerts from passing cars, high winds, and any critters you may have roaming around your property, look for a doorbell cam that offers customizable motion zones.

Other features to look for include face recognition technology that identifies visitors by name, motion sensing technology that knows the difference between people, cars, and animals, color night vision video (most doorbell cameras use infrared LEDs to provide up to 30 feet of black-and-white video), and a choice of chimes that will help you differentiate between a doorbell press and a motion trigger. Some of latest doorbell cameras offer a pre-buffer feature that records several seconds of activity prior to when a motion sensor is triggered or the doorbell button has been pressed so you can see what happened just before an event.

Video doorbells don't offer local storage for recorded video, so you'll have to subscribe to a cloud service in order to view your motion- and doorbell-triggered video clips. Expect to pay anywhere from $3 per month and up for a plan that gives you access to 30 or more days of video that you can download and share. If you want to view older footage, make sure you save your clips as they will be deleted after the allotted time is up.

Interoperability With Other Smart Home Tech

Many home security systems offer video doorbells as add-on components, but these devices typically do not work on their own and must be connected to a system hub. However, they usually interact with other system components such as door locks, sirens, and lighting. If you want a standalone smart doorbell that will work with other smart devices in your home, look for one that supports the IFTTT (If This Then That) internet service. With IFTTT you can easily create mini programs, called applets, that let IFTTT-enabled devices interact with each other. For example, you can create an applet that tells a Wemo Smart Switch to turn on when a Ring Doorbell is pressed, or have a D-Link siren sound when an August Doorbell Cam senses motion.

Another handy feature to look for is support for Alexa voice commands that let you view a doorbell's live stream on an Amazon-enabled display. Once you've enabled the skill, simply say "Alexa, show the front door" to launch a live stream on your Echo Show or Fire TV-enabled TV or monitor.

Video Doorbells vs. Smart Home Security Cameras

Video doorbells and home security cameras offer many of the same benefits. Both will show you what is going on outside of your home, both offer motion detection and motion-triggered recording, and in most cases, both let you speak to whoever is out there. That said, the simple fact is that security cameras lack the doorbell component. If you're downstairs doing the laundry and your phone is upstairs, a security camera won't tell you that someone is at the door, but the doorbell will (when pressed).

With that in mind, these are best video doorbells we've tested so far. The category is evolving quickly (Google is entering the fray soon with the Nest Hello), and models released in the last six months tend be far superior to those released in the last couple of years. We'll be adding to this list regularly as we test new devices.

Bottom Line: The Ring Video Doorbell Pro is a sleek smart doorbell that lets you see who is at your door in real time, who came calling while you were away, and uses pre-buffering so you won't miss a thi...

Bottom Line: The Ring Video Doorbell lets you use your smartphone to see who is at your door before you open it. It offers motion detection, push notifications, and video recording, but audio quality is ...

Bottom Line: The RemoBell is a wireless video doorbell that lets you see who's at the door from your mobile device, but it suffers from subpar audio quality and laggy video, and it doesn't interact with ...

About the Author

As a Contributing Editor for PC Magazine, John Delaney has been testing and reviewing monitors, HDTVs, PCs, servers, and other assorted hardware and peripherals for more than 14 years. A 13-year veteran of PC Magazine's Labs (most recently as Director of Operations), John was responsible for the recruitment, training and management of the Labs technical staff, as well as evaluating and maintaining the integrity of the Labs testing machines and procedures.

Prior to joining Ziff Davis Publishing, John spent six years in retail operations for Federated Stores, Inc. before accepting a purchasing position with Morris Decision Systems, one of New York's first value-added resellers of the original IBM PC. For ... See Full Bio